®f a v fble Church of Chr 67 C H A P. VII. Containing a Defcription of the formal Caufe of Church - Membefhip.. ir Come now to defCribe the formal conilituting Caufe of Church Memberfhip. ifl. Negatively, wherein I fhall Phew what is not the formal conititutirig Caufe. i. Birth - Privilege doth not conftitute a Perfon a Mem- ber of an inflituted Church : all Birth- Privileges with re. fpeEt to Church - Memberfhip and Ordinances are now ceafed, together with the legal Difpenfation: The Parti- tion -wall was broken down, when Chrifi was fered up ; that is, the peculiar Covenant that God made with Ifrael, by virtue of which they were a feparate People: Exod. xix. 5, 6. If ye will indeed obey my Voice, and keep my Covenant, then you fhall be a peculiar Treat re unto me above all People: For all the Earth is mine, and ye (hall be a Kinodcm of Prießs, a holy Nation; that is, a feparate Nation. This Covenant is now made void, Zach. xi. io. Then I took my Staf even Beauty, and cut it afunder. that I might break my Covenant that I had made with all the People; and it was broken in that Day, that was, when they weighed for his Price thirty Pieces of Silver. Dr. Owen obferves on this Place, that when the Covenant of Grace was confirmed by the offering up of Christ, the peculiar Covenant that God had made with all the Peo- ple of . f ae1 was broken, and Ifrael ceafed to be a Church ; then Birth- Privileges ceafed, a Cor. v. 16. Henceforth. know we no Man after the Flejh ; that is, from the Time of Chritt's Oblation, as appears by the preceding Verfe, where it is faid, He died for all, that henceforth they that live fhauld not live to thcnfelves, but to him that died for them ; and then it follows, Henceforth know 'we no Man, &c,
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